Inquiry Into the Impact on the Agricultural Sector of Vegetation and Land Management Policies, Regulations and Restrictions

Submission to the Commonwealth Standing Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources from the Queensland Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy

Inquiry into the impact on the agricultural sector of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions.

January 2019

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Table of contents

Introduction ...... 2 Vegetation Management ...... 2 Overview of the framework ...... 3 Fire management ...... 4 Firebreaks and fire management lines ...... 4 Hazard reduction ...... 6 Economic impact ...... 6 Communication ...... 7 State Land Management ...... 8 Overview of state land management...... 8 Fire management ...... 8 Conclusion ...... 9

Submission to the Inquiry into the impact on the agricultural sector of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions. 1

Introduction Thank you for the invitation to provide a submission to the inquiry into the impact on the agricultural sector of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions. This submission addresses the management of native vegetation and state land, which are matters within the portfolio responsibilities of the Hon. Anthony Lynham, Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy. Other matters relevant to the inquiry’s terms of reference are within the portfolios of my Queensland Ministerial colleagues, the Hon. Craig Crawford, Minister for Fire and Emergency Services; the Hon. Mark Furner, Minister for Agricultural Development and Fisheries; and the Hon. Leeanne Enoch, Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef, Minister for Science and Minister for the Arts. I understand that the Committee has not invited a submission from these Ministers.I encourage the Committee to seek submissions from them on any relevant matters pertaining to their portfolios.

The Queensland Government has established an independent review of the effectiveness of preparedness activity and response to the heatwave conditions and the major bushfires that occurred in Queensland from late November to early December 2018. The review, being conducted by the Inspector-General Emergency Management, will report to the Minister for Fire and Emergency Services.

The terms of reference provided for the Standing Committee’s inquiry are extremely broad. For two of the terms of reference (past and current practices of land and vegetation by the agricultural sector and regional communities; and the economic impact of vegetation and land management policies, regulations and restrictions), a comprehensive response to these criteria would require review of policy and legislative frameworks over several decades across a number of portfolios, which is not possible within the inquiry timeframes. This submission addresses matters relating to vegetation management and State land management, as they relate to fire preparedness and economic impact.

Vegetation Management Since 1999, vegetation management in Queensland has been regulated under the Vegetation Management Act 1999 (VMA) and the Planning Act 2016 and its predecessor Acts.

Over the last twenty years, the VMA has been central to achievement of outcomes crucial to the interests of the Queensland and Australian Governments that go beyond the Inquiry’s terms of reference. In particular, the conservation of native vegetation facilitated by the VMA has been assessed by the Australian Greenhouse Office to have be critical to Australia achieving its commitment to reductions in carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol1.

In 2018, the Australian and Queensland Governments identified the VMA and its regulation of vegetation clearing within the catchments of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) as key reasons the GBR should not be listed as endangered by the IUCN2. Indeed, that Report to the World Heritage Committee stated:-

“Changes to Queensland’s vegetation management laws were passed in 2018, delivering on the action in the Plan to strengthen Queensland’s vegetation management legislation. The changes protect high-value regrowth vegetation in Reef catchments and prevent broadscale clearing of remnant vegetation for new agricultural development. Regulation of vegetation clearing within 50 metres of a watercourse was also extended to the Burnett-Mary, Eastern Cape York and Fitzroy regions to provide consistent protection of riparian vegetation in all Great Barrier Reef catchments. The changes are expected to deliver reduced carbon emissions and sediment run-off, as well as provide increased protection for endangered, vulnerable and near-threatened species….”

1 Queensland Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2004, Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra, 2006 2 Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan—July 2018, Commonwealth of Australia 2018.

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The Queensland Government is committed to evidence based policy and will continue to evaluate legislation, policies or programs on the basis of the best available science. This is evidenced by the fact that the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is currently engaged to review the Accepted Development Vegetation Clearing Codes that provide for low risk vegetation management activities under the vegetation management framework. The Queensland Government is also investing $3.9 million in a scientific program to support enhanced vegetation mapping to identify and report on the condition and extent of regrowth vegetation and inform habitat conservation.

Overview of the framework Queensland’s vegetation management framework regulates the clearing of native woody vegetation, including trees and shrubs, but not non-woody plants such as grasses.

The framework, through the Planning Act 2016 and the Vegetation Management Act 1999, regulates the clearing of remnant vegetation. It also regulates the clearing of high value regrowth vegetation, and all native regrowth vegetation alongside watercourses in Great Barrier Reef catchments.

The framework uses land tenure and the Regulated Vegetation Management Map to determine how vegetation is regulated. Areas are shown on the Regulated Vegetation Management Map as either:

• Category A areas which are areas subject to greater clearing restrictions, including areas subject to offsets, voluntary declarations, compliance notices, as well as exchange areas.

• Category B areas which are remnant vegetation.

• Category C areas which are high-value regrowth vegetation .

• Category R areas which are regrowth watercourse areas in priority Great Barrier Reef catchments (Burdekin, Mackay, Whitsunday and Wet Tropics); and

• Category X areas which are exempt from requiring approval to clear under the vegetation management framework.

The statewide ‘regulated vegetation management map’ shows the location of areas of vegetation in each category. Landholders may opt to obtain a ‘Property Map of Assessable Vegetation’ or PMAV, which shows vegetation categories at a property scale.

PMAVs are an important tool to show landholders where they can, or cannot clear, with areas denoted as ‘Category X’ being able to be cleared without restriction under the state’s vegetation management laws. Since PMAVs were introduced in 2004, the Vegetation Management Act has contained a provision that ensures PMAVs override the Regulated Vegetation Management Map when determining if vegetation clearing is triggered. This has provided certainty for landholders who have ‘locked in’ Category X on a PMAV.

The vegetation management framework allows clearing through the following pathways:

• regulatory exemptions allow clearing without an approval or notification, which apply to a variety of routine and essential land management practices, and practices that are approved under another Act3;

3 For a full list of exempt clearing work, see: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/exemptions. Exemptions are established primarily under the QLD Planning Regulation 2017 Schedule 21.

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• accepted development (self-assessment) vegetation clearing codes4 and area management plans5 provide for clearing to occur for lower impact activities. No approval is required; however, the landholder must comply with the requirements of the relevant code or plan. This includes a requirement to notify the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (DNRME) before doing the clearing. Notifications are free and can be easily and quickly made on line, and clearing can commence as soon as the notification is made;

• a development approval is required for certain more significant clearing activities. This enables clearing to be approved for a range of purposes including extractive industries and coordinated projects, as well as for the above lower impact activities where the applicant wishes to exceed the clearing allowable under the codes. Applications can be made on line and there are strict statutory time limits applied to the assessment and approval by the assessment manager.6

In May 2018, the Queensland Government amended the framework to reinstate protections that were removed by the previous Government in 2013, as well as some additional enhancements based on the latest science. Amendments to the vegetation management framework included:

• reinstatement of the protection of high-value regrowth vegetation on freehold and indigenous land;

• removal of provisions (introduced in 2013) which permitted clearing for high value agriculture and irrigated high value agriculture;

• broadening of the protection of regrowth vegetation in watercourse areas to the Burnett-Mary, Eastern Cape York and Fitzroy catchments. This afforded the same protection to regrowth vegetation in all six Great Barrier Reef catchments;

• providing enhanced compliance measures that assist with enforcement of vegetation management laws;

• amending thinning/ managing thickened vegetation from being subject to self-assessment to being assessable development given that independent reviews had concluded this activity was not low impact which is the intent of the codes; and

• Reviewing the accepted development (self-assessment) vegetation clearing codes to ensure they achieve the purpose of the Act.

Fire management

Firebreaks and fire management lines Queensland’s responsible vegetation management framework includes measures that ensure landholders can protect their property from bushfires, including firebreaks and fire management lines. A firebreak (or “fuel break”) is a strip of cleared land intended to allow access for fire fighting vehicles and assist with prescribed burning operations, and it may slow or stop a low intensity fire. However,

4 For a full list of the accepted development vegetation clearing codes see: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/codes 5 Some area management plans are being phased out and it is no longer possible for landholders to initiate area management plans. For more details on these plans see: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/area-plans 6 For further details of the development approval process see: https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/development

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firebreaks cannot be relied upon to prevent the progress of a wildfire when the fire front has a high probability to either burn over the firebreak or where ember attack may occur ahead of the fire front and cause the spread of the fire beyond the firebreak. A fire management line can be used to access water for fire-fighting, divide the property into sub-units to allow a fuel reduction burning program to be carried out, and/or divide the property into sub-units to allow for back burning in the event of a wildfire. It is often a pathway, track, road or existing clearing along a fence.

No approval or notification is needed to clear necessary firebreaks or fire management lines. Specifically, a landholder may clear to establish or maintain:

o a firebreak to protect infrastructure (other than a fence, road or vehicular track) up to 1.5 times the height of the tallest adjacent vegetation or 20m (whichever is wider);

o a fire management line of 10 metres width; o clearing to establish or maintain a fence up to 10 m wide – providing a fire management line on the boundary of all properties; In an emergency, landholders can do any clearing required by an authorised fire officer. These responsible measures have always been permitted, and these regulatory exemptions under the vegetation management framework have not changed in 20 years. In non-coastal areas, landholders can also clear a firebreak up to 1.5 times the height of the tallest adjacent vegetation or 30 metres wide, whichever is greater, provided they make a notification to DNRME. The notification is free and can be done quickly and easily on line. This measure is provided by the accepted development vegetation clearing code for managing clearing for necessary property infrastructure.7 Should a landholder consider they need to clear a wider firebreak or fire management line than provided by the above measures, they are able to make an application for a development approval. The application can also be submitted on line, and strict statutory time lines apply to the assessment and approval process. Applications are assessed using the State Development Assessment Provisions8. The exemptions provide sufficient width to cover most landholders’ needs. In the last two years, DNRME has identified only one application made for clearing for a wider firebreak or fire management line. Other Australian jurisdictions (Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia) have published firebreak or fuel break guidelines9. These guidelines indicate that the firebreak widths required in a given location are a function of criteria including; position in the landscape, slope, and fuel load based on vegetation type. The Queensland exemptions listed above were developed in consultation with Queensland Fire and Emergency Services taking into account Queensland conditions. The specified widths for firebreaks and fire management lines in Queensland are consistent with requirements applied by other States. Indeed, the Queensland provisions are generally wider than the widths defined in other States.

7 Managing clearing for necessary property infrastructure 2013. https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/codes 8 https://dsdmipprd.blob.core.windows.net/general/sdap-v2-3-state-code-16-native-vegetation- clearing.pdf 9 Eg Fuel Break Guidelines, Tasmania Fire Service 2016; A Guide to Constructing and Maintaining Fire-breaks. Government of Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services

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Hazard reduction Queensland’s responsible vegetation management framework provides exemptions for hazard reduction burns, and to clear hazardous vegetation.

Clearing hazardous vegetation that poses a risk of serious personal injury or damage to infrastructure may be done under a regulatory exemption without approval or notification, within an area 20m or 1.5 times the height of the tallest adjacent vegetation from the infrastructure. This exemption allows landholders to remove dangerous trees or limbs that are likely to fall and damage infrastructure.

A landholder does not need to notify or obtain any approval under the VMA to undertake hazard reduction burning (also known as ‘fuel reduction burns’ or ‘control burning’) to reduce fuel loads. This exemption applies irrespective of the vegetation management status of the vegetation.

Undertaking hazard reduction to reduce fuel loads is the responsibility of the landholder and requires only a permit from a local fire warden under the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990.

This exemption under the VMA was not changed by the 2018 legislative amendments and has not changed in 20 years.

There has been public comment about vegetation thickening and the restrictions imposed by the vegetation management codes. From 2013 to 2018, the accepted development code for ‘thinning’ included measures that addressed chemical and mechanical thinning operations, but did not restrict controlled burning which is exempt under the VMA. Indeed, the thinning codes promoted control burning and included text prefacing that “A lack of fire or an inappropriate fire management regime is a common reason for vegetation thickening. You should try using fire to thin before using chemical and mechanical methods. In most cases, fire should be used for the long term management and maintenance of the area.…” Adoption of appropriate fire management regimes in certain regional ecosystems continues to be DNRME’s preferred strategy for managing thickened vegetation.

In 2018, the accepted development code for managing thickened vegetation was revoked; however, it remains possible to apply for a development approval for managing thickened vegetation. Revocation of the code was based on an independent review of the codes by Cardo in 201510 and then a detailed review of the code by the Queensland Herbarium which was peer reviewed by the CSIRO in 2018. These reviews concluded that chemical or mechanical thinning operations could not be characterised as low impact activities. DNRME has published guidelines to assist landholders in applying for approval for managing thickened vegetation, and has introduced a “fast track 5” streamlined approval process that cuts the cost and time for the development assessment and approval to 5 days.11

It should be noted that the Vegetation Management Act 1999 does not apply to some land tenures, including protected areas under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Approval for control burning in these areas may be managed under other legislation relevant to the portfolios of the Ministers mentioned in the introduction to this submission. In addition, it should be noted that obtaining a permit from a fire warden under the Fire and Emergency Services Act 1990 requires the applicant to obtain approval from the landowner and to notify adjacent landowners.

Economic impact The Queensland Government ended broadscale tree clearing in December 2006. This was a significant change to the vegetation management framework and had the potential to impact many

10 Independent review of vegetation SACs / Cardno for the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (2015) 11 https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/land/management/vegetation/development

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landholders by preventing long standing and established clearing practises. To address this impact, the Government funded a $170 million financial assistance package over a five year period, comprising $150 million for a Structural Adjustment Program, $12 million for a Vegetation Incentives Program and $8 million for a Best Management Program. Between 25 June 2004 and 21 February 2007, the government received 1610 applications for Enterprise Assistance, Exit Assistance and business subsidies. Enterprise Assistance provided 1466 rural landholders with grants of up to $100,000 to transition business away from a reliance on clearing. Exit Assistance provided for six properties that were classified as financially unviable being purchased for $10.35 million. Business subsidies for tree clearing contractors provided up to $10,000 each to seven businesses affected by the legislation. In 2013, the Newman Government re-introduced the ability to broadscale clear for high value agriculture and irrigated high value agriculture. Since this time, landholders have had the chance to clear areas of remnant vegetation previously protected by the 2004 reforms. This includes clearing areas which may have already been the subject of compensation under the 2004 financial assistance package. The changes to Queensland’s vegetation management laws in early 2018 to remove of high value agriculture and irrigated high value agriculture as allowable clearing purposes was not a removal of long standing and established property rights. The change merely reinstated Queensland’s balanced and sensible vegetation management laws that had been in place for over a decade. Rural landholders, and the agricultural industry in Queensland, are still able to undertake clearing, via the exemptions, for a range of routine and essential property management purposes. Landholders can also continue to manage their land and vegetation by following the accepted development vegetation clearing codes, which allow harvesting of fodder for stock, managing weeds and encroachment, and clearing for infrastructure such as fences and firebreaks, without the need for an approval. Landowners are also able to undertake lower-risk clearing under the accepted development vegetation clearing code for improving the operational efficiency of existing agriculture, and under the category C high value regrowth code. Large scale activities for agricultural purposes may be considered under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 as a coordinated project, and the ability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to apply to clear for agricultural purposes on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land on Cape York Peninsula continues unaffected under the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007. The Queensland Government has committed to a review of the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007 to ensure it provides an effective pathway for appropriate economic development. In addition, it is estimated that there are about one million hectares of land in Queensland of Class A soils (highly suitable for cropping) that is mapped as category X on the regulated vegetation map or on landholders’ Property Maps of Assessable Vegetation, and is free of other constraints such as protected area status or urban zoning. This land, which is predominantly currently used for grazing, could be developed for cropping without the need to clear regulated vegetation. This provides an ample reserve for the expansion of agriculture within Queensland.

Communication DNRME has a total of 63 vegetation management staff across the state whose role includes talking to landholders every day about how the vegetation management laws relate to their specific situation.

Landholder feedback in relation to extension activities such as workshops and field days indicates that landholders prefer events where their peer networks are involved. Therefore, the preferred

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model for such events is to support peak groups, such as Agforce and natural resource management groups.

Since May 2018, DNRME officers have attended over 35 field days and information sessions. Rural media has highlighted that landholders are appreciative of the opportunity to listen to and discuss the explanation behind the changes first hand.

DNRME has also developed a Veg Hub over the past year that has also created business efficiencies and is delivering reliable, professional and expert advice to landholders across the state. The five core Veg Hub staff physically located in Charleville are supported by officers around the state who are able to be called upon to deal with landholder telephone and email enquiries as call volumes demand. Since May 2018, the Veg Hub has dealt with around 5000 calls about vegetation management.

The efficiencies delivered by the Veg Hub allows regional staff to spend more time in face-to-face discussions and appointments with those landholders who prefer to be able to go into their regional office and talk face-to-face.

Any landholder who has concerns or wants clarification of how they may undertake fire preparedness on their property is encouraged to make contact with DNRME (on 135 VEG) to understand how the vegetation management framework applies.

State Land Management

Overview of state land management State land is managed under the Land Act 1994, in conjunction with the Aboriginal Land Act 1991, the Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991 and other legislation. These Acts primarily deal with establishing tenure and in dealings with land, however, the Land Act also provides a framework for the management of land held by the state as unallocated state land, reserves and trusts.

Fire management DNRME has custodial responsibilities for the management of fire and pest issues on unallocated state land (USL). There are nearly 18,000 parcels of USL amounting to a total of nearly a million hectares state-wide. The Department employs 20 full time fire and pest management officers. These teams have established a solid fire risk management framework across all of the USL parcels that take account of the parcels’ varied sizes, configurations and proximity to adjoining fire sensitive land uses. In the 2017/18 financial year, this work involved an expenditure of $3.25M, and included 167 controlled burns and 1,939km of fire trail maintenance/slashing. This work is coordinated with other control burning activity by state agencies and local government led by the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service (QFES) under the banner of Operation Cool Burn. In the bushfires of November and December 2018, DNRME is not aware of any fire than was started on USL. One fire in the Herberton region that started on leasehold land progressed to USL. DNRME is not aware of any suggestion from local community that the USL had not been appropriately managed. A practical constraint for fire management operations is the window of time during which areas are able to safely and effectively sustain a control burn. This window begins at the end of the wet season

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and is determined by the drying index. The other end of that window is defined by the commencement of hotter and drier summer conditions when temperatures and dryness combine to produce unsafe conditions for a control burn. There is evidence that in Queensland, this control burn window is shifting and narrowing, associated with the emerging impacts of climate change. At the same time, the period during which wild fires can occur is lengthening. On 20 December 2018, the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology released the State of the Climate Report. The report draws the conclusion that "What we can see is a clear shift towards a lengthened fire season, more fire weather during that season, and the severity of the fire weather has become more severe….".12 The reference made in the 2018 State of the Climate Report to increasing severity of fire weather is particularly pertinent to the severe fires that affected much of eastern Queensland in late 2018. The fire weather that drove those extreme fires was unprecedented in many regions13, and led to unprecedented fire behaviour, including substantial areas of tropical rainforest burning in Eungella National Park. The moist microclimate of rainforest typically lends it significant protection from fire risk. Burning rainforest emphasises the highly unusual nature of the fires that occurred in late 2018 and the fundamental role of extreme weather in driving that unusual behaviour. The changes to the fire management window, increasing frequency of severe fire weather and the lengthening fire season demonstrate the critical importance of the Queensland Government’s policies and programs to address climate change14. This includes the Queensland Climate Transition Strategy which outlines how Queensland will transition to a zero net emissions future that supports jobs, industries, communities and the environment. Early actions include the ground-breaking 50% renewable energy target by 2030, the Advance Queensland initiative—including the Biofutures 10- Year Roadmap—and a commitment to developing an Electric Vehicle Strategy to prepare Queensland for a transition to electric vehicles. At the same time, the Queensland Climate Adaption Strategy outlines how Queensland will prepare for current and future impacts of a changing climate that reduces risk and increases resilience. The Government has supported the agricultural sector to prepare the Agriculture Adaptation Plan. This plan identifies the priority activities required to help agriculture industry members identify and adapt to climate hazards that present a risk to their productivity and sustainable profitability.

Conclusion The Queensland Government is committed to a responsible vegetation management framework. It has amended the VMA to cease broadscale clearing, restore protection to high value regrowth and to habitat for near-threatened species. It has also extended protection to regrowth vegetation along all watercourses that lead to the Great Barrier Reef.

These reforms, while important to achieving the conservation of regional ecosystems and threatened species in Queensland and protecting the Great Barrier Reef, also provide landholders with the tools required to responsibly manage their land, including maintaining their agricultural activities and protecting their properties from fire. Importantly, the reforms have made no change to the exemptions which allow landholders to clear fire breaks and fire management lines, remove hazardous vegetation and conduct fuel reduction burns. Indeed, these responsible measures have remained unchanged through successive governments since the VMA was first enacted in 1989.

12 http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/ 13 https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Queensland-Bushfires-and-Climate- Change_Interim-Conclusions.pdf 14 https://www.qld.gov.au/environment/climate/climate-change/response

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The Government will continue to invest in communication and extension to assist landholders in understanding their rights and responsibilities under the framework. The Government will also continue to invest in scientific research and improvements in mapping as part of a continuous improvement that ensures its vegetation management framework is based on the best available science. Furthermore, the Government will continue to take action to address the underlying cause of the increase in the bushfire season and the increasing intensity of fires, through its programs to reduce climate change and to assist the agricultural sector to adapt to its effects.

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